Viral Video Shows Scary Self-Driving Shuttle EV Crash Days After Initial Launch

A self-driving electric shuttle got into an accident days after its launch. The SWAN (Shuttling with Autonomous Navigation) vehicle was in contact with a municipal bus on the road -- just two days after it hit the streets of Orlando, Florida in its launch, according to the New York Post . The city inaugurated the service on Aug. 20. The crash took place on Tuesday. In a twist, a user of the small automated and electric vehicle was recording at the time of the accident -- and shared a clip of the incident on TikTok. @samorlando220 Tried out the new SWAN Shuttle auntonmous shuttle in Downtown Orlando today. We crashed. #Beep ♬ original sound - Sam Gallaher It's not clear which vehicle was at fault in the collision. Police indicated that no passengers on either vehicle were injured in the low-speed collision, according to the Post. The automated shuttle bus is intended to whisk passengers around a small area in Orlando's downtown, according to Manufacturing Business Technology . Orlando journalist McKenna Schueler raised questions about the $500,000 SWAN program after the collision. "Orlando’s autonomous SWAN Shuttle launched this week, and by Tuesday, it struck a Lynx bus causing minor damage to both vehicles,” she wrote, quoting the Orlando Sentinel . "Seems like this $500,000 pilot program is going well." “Orlando’s autonomous SWAN Shuttle launched this week, and by Tuesday, it struck a Lynx bus causing minor damage to both vehicles.”

Seems like this $500,000 pilot program is going well. https://t.co/RIG2I9OU59 — McKenna Schueler (@SheCarriesOn) August 22, 2023 Americans are broadly cautious about the idea of driving alongside automated vehicles on the nation's cities and highways. A Pew Research poll indicated that 44 percent of the public consider the gradual introduction of automated cars into transit to be bad for society. A 63 percent majority also indicated that they would not want to ride in such a vehicle. Orlando's SWAN bus is designed for an attendant to sit on board at all times -- and potentially take control of the automated vehicle, according to the Orlando Sentinel. A representative for the city indicated that there were no plans to alter the SWAN pilot program after the crash, the Sentinel reported.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal .